falcotron

multi-post; sorry

multi-post; sorry

The show didn't need that, because they outed LF as a duplicitous master villain much earlier on. And his plot was already evil enough without needing the "brothel training" part. Unlike Jeyne, who he obviously never saw as anything but a pawn, LF seemed to genuinely care about Sansa, sometimes seeming to mistake her for her mother (the only person he ever cared about besides himself), sometimes seeing her as a protege to carry on his business. And yet, he still dumped her on Ramsay with nothing more than a slim hope that he'd taught her well enough to take care of herself (which she clearly didn't believe he had). Which, of course, parallels the fact that his whole master plan is what got Cat, the love of his life, killed. The show really doesn't need to dump any more obvious evil on LF. No viewer is going to mistake him for Mr. Nice Helpful Guy.

Selyse and Shireen weren't at Castle Black throughout; they were staying at Eastwatch until the Nightfort was ready, while Stannis was at Castle Black. They temporarily moved into Castle Black later. I don't remember whether Mel was staying with Selyse's entourage or Stannis's. But anyway, Mel definitely stayed at the Wall (she even said something about being more useful staying behind because her power is stronger at the Wall), and she was definitely at Castle Black in the final days.

How do you figure that? Of course we know that, from Theon's PoV, Stannis isn't dead at the start of book 6. But that just means Theon's PoV is behind Jon's. That would hardly be the first time the PoVs aren't in chronological order. And, more importantly, that's true no matter what happens to Stannis. Anyway, I don't think he's the one who burns Shireen in the books; Mel and Selyse will do it while he's away (and it'll be ambiguous whether Stannis knew they were planning to do it). And I suspect Selyse will kill herself not because she didn't stop Shireen's sacrifice, but because, even with the sacrifice, Stannis failed. Meanwhile, book Stannis will die unambiguously, cut down while instructing one of his knights to go find his second-cousin once-removed Squiggy, who should be 3 soon, and tell him that as Lyonel Baratheon brother's great-grandson he'd better get ready to fight for the throne, because it's not his right, it's his duty.

Didn't we hear her list without him the last time, and now he's on the list again? I'll have to go back and rewatch… I know we don't always hear the complete list. Anyway, you're definitely right that, on top of the Arya character development, they play well off each other; their scenes are usually among the most fun in each episode. Meanwhile, I don't think her AFFC/ADwD stuff is thin, except the early part before she gets to the House of Black and White. And they can skip over most of it—end one season with her booking passage with the coin, start the next with her being snuck into Braavos and finding the House. The only problem is that much of her story—Nymeria, Dareon and Sam, —might not fit into the TV show, so they might have to expand on the rest.

Did you forget Orell, who traveled with Tormund and Jon, spied on the Wall with his eagle, and warged into his eagle when he died? Or the Thenn warg, who found Tormund's party through his owl? There's been a lot of conversation about warging whenever wildlings are on screen, and if anything the show seems to imply that it's more common than in the books. The only thing we haven't seen is the hints (and, later, direct confirmation) that the other Stark kids are also wargs. And of course we haven't seen the Kindly Man, Bloodraven, etc. at all yet, so it's no surprise that we haven't seen that they're wargs.

In the book, Arya's whole story is finding different people that she thinks she can learn from and emulate, only to realize that she doesn't want to be them at all. The BWB, the Hound, and presumably the Kindly Man next. The show can't do that with Arya's thoughts, but it's getting the same idea across through action. The BWB appeared to be the most noble organization in the world, but they turned Gendry over to Melisandre, and now Beric and Thoros are on her list. The Hound's code sounded like a way to be honorable without being bound to society's ridiculous rules, but then he robbed a farmer with the flimsiest of justification, and now he's on her list.

It might have been a bit more better for GRRM to model Braavos after Medieval Venice more than Dutch-Golden-Age Amsterdam, considering how medieval the world is in general, and how Valyria was much more Roman than Hapsburg… but on the other hand, a city of refugees and religious radicals becoming a world leader by inventing modern trade and banking makes for a better story than a city of long-established natives becoming a world leader by defeating the pirates. And other than that quibble, there is nothing too unrealistic about Braavos the IB, and I don't know why people think otherwise.

Actually, making them look evil even as they were saving a little baby made me think they're going to be a lot more grey. GRRM and D&D have both talked about how much the "ugly/scary-looking = evil" thing in most fantasy annoys them, and what better way to subvert that than to film a scene where the White Walkers are doing something that looks menacing and hideous, but may actually be good when you think about it? Of course they're clearly not the heroes of the story. For one thing, there aren't any heroes. For another, they weren't just saving the baby; they were saving the baby by turning it into one of them. Whether the parallel is Turkish Janissaries or 20th-century vampires, this is clearly a gift that's self-serving to the giver and not without drawbacks to the recipient.

You might want to actually read the quote you just posted. The entire point is that once you open the door to allow unlicensed fan-fiction you can't shut it on the "perhaps less wonderful" writers who come later. So, how is permitting a licensed adaptation, with him as a consultant, having told the writers where every arc in the story is going, in any way relevant to that quote?